and sweet. He had not been up so early since he was a boy. Why was he
walking through a damp wood at this hour of the morning? Something
intolerable and unfamiliar must have sent him out. No fellow in his
senses would do such a thing! He came to a dead stop, and began
unsteadily to walk back. Regaining the hotel, he went to bed again, and
dreamed that in some wild country he was living in a room full of
insects, where a housemaid--Rozsi--holding a broom, looked at him with
mournful eyes. There seemed an unexplained need for immediate departure;
he begged her to forward his things; and shake them out carefully before
she put them into the trunk. He understood that the charge for sending
would be twenty-two shillings, thought it a great deal, and had the
horrors of indecision. "No," he muttered, "pack, and take them myself."
The housemaid turned suddenly into a lean creature; and he awoke with a
sore feeling in his heart.

His eye fell on his wet boots. The whole thing was scaring, and jumping
up, he began to throw his clothes into his trunks. It was twelve o'clock
before he went down, and found his brother and Traquair still at the
table arranging an itinerary; he surprised them by saying that he too was
coming; and without further explanation set to work to eat. James had
heard that there were salt-mines in the neighbourhood--his proposal was
to start, and halt an hour or so on the road for their inspection; he
said: "Everybody'll ask you if you've seen the salt-mines: I shouldn't
like to say I hadn't seen the salt-mines. What's the good, they'd say,
of your going there if you haven't seen the salt-mines?" He wondered,
too, if they need fee the second waiter--an idle chap!

A discussion followed; but Swithin ate on glumly, conscious that his mind
was set on larger affairs. Suddenly on the far side of the street Rozsi
and her sister passed, with little baskets on their arms. He started up,
and at that moment Rozsi looked round--her face was the incarnation of
enticement, the chin tilted, the lower lip thrust a little forward, her
round neck curving back over her shoulder. Swithin muttered, "Make your
own arrangements--leave me out!" and hurried from the room, leaving James
beside himself with interest and alarm.

When he reached the street, however, the girls had disappeared. He
hailed a carriage. "Drive!" he called to the man, with a flourish of his
stick, and as soon as the wheels had begun to cla